“See you tonight. ’Bye,” they both yelled before returning to their private conversation.
Tatum walked in front of me as he tossed Buster’s toy for him to fetch. Once we were out of earshot, I teased, “Well, that was the quickest swimming-hole excursion I’ve ever had.”
He stopped on the path and turned to face me, his expression serious. “Stay away from Brina, Paige. I mean it.”
“She found me, not the other way around,” I said innocently as he moved closer toward me. With each step he took, my heart thudded more painfully inside my chest. He leaned toward me, his lips mere inches from mine, and I held my breath in anticipation of what might come. Fighting my attraction for Tatum was a lot of work.
“You can’t trust her,” he whispered, and I prayed for him to close the space between us completely. Instead, he turned back around as I stood there dumbfounded, fighting for air.
Field Parties Are a Bad Idea
Tatum
Seeing Paige with Brina royally pissed me off. I had been so happy for all of two seconds when I first saw Paige in the clearing, her black-and-white bikini showing off way more skin than I ever thought I’d see. But then I noticed we weren’t alone, and any happiness I felt evaporated into the hot and humid air. The last thing I needed was for Brina to go filling Paige’s head with lies, stories, and her version of the truth.
“Paige, did you ask the girls not to tell anyone you were here?” I asked, suddenly remembering that Paige was trying to recover from heartbreak and she needed space.
She shook her head, her long brown ponytail moving with it. “I figured if we were going to a party tonight, that’s sort of pointless. Don’t you think?”
Buster ran back to my side, toy in his mouth, and I grabbed it and chucked it across the field. “Shit.” Why’d they have to go and tell her about the party?
“What’s wrong?” Paige’s eyes narrowed and she looked genuinely sad.
“I don’t like the idea of everyone knowing you’re here. After this party, Paige, the whole town will know you’re here. And then who knows what else will happen after that.”
“Is that really a bad thing? I mean, will they tell? Can’t we ask them not to say anything to anyone?”
“We can try, but I’m not sure it will work. Most of the people here are good folk. But this might be too much for even them to handle. It’s more excitement than we’ve had in years.”
I laughed because it was true, but my chest ached at not being able to promise her privacy. Paige being here would be front-page news of our newspaper, if we had one.
“Give me a minute,” I said, handing Paige her towel before running back the way we’d come, leaving Paige standing in the middle of the field with Buster jumping around her.
Jogging back toward the swimming hole, I prayed Brina and Celeste hadn’t left yet. The last thing I wanted to do was have to call Brina on the phone. I’d done a pretty good job of avoiding that task since we’d broken up. I entered the clearing and saw them lying on their towels, chatting away.
“Oh, Tatum. You came back.” Brina sat up immediately, her blond hair falling down around her shoulders. I hated that my dick twitched at the sight of her. What my dick should do is curl up inside itself and run away screaming. If there was ever truth to the rumor that guys’ penises acted on their own accord, this was the proof. Earth to penis, this one’s bad news. Down, boy.
“I just wanted to ask you girls to please keep the fact that Paige is here to yourself. She really needs the privacy right now, and she wants to relax without any of the typical craziness.”
“What do you care?” Brina whined, and I wished someone would knock some sense into her.
“I care because Paige is a nice girl. She’s just trying to catch a break, and if her agent or whatever finds out where she is, he’ll come get her and make her go home.” I didn’t know why I spilled this much personal information, but I needed them to know how important it was that they keep their mouths shut.
“I won’t say anything to anyone,” Celeste said. “And if you guys come tonight, I’ll help keep everyone else quiet about it too.”
“Yeah, Tatum. No one’s really going to care that she’s here. I mean, they’ll care,” Brina said slowly, “but no one will want her to leave.”
Celeste laughed. “Brina’s right. They’ll all just want to be friends with her.”
I shook my head, the list of cons for taking Paige to the party growing with each word they spoke. “Well, just don’t say anything. Please? I’m asking nicely.”
“We already said we wouldn’t. God, Tatum, I always knew you had a thing for her. Every time we’d watch one of her movies you’d—”
I cut her off. “I don’t have a thing for her, okay? I barely even know her.”
“You sure seem to care an awful lot about someone you barely know,” Brina added with a frown, then lay back down on her towel and turned her head away.